Hockey Goalie Stick

ABSTRACT

A hockey goalie stick comprising a blade, a paddle, and a shaft, wherein the face of the paddle has one or more surface features. The surface feature(s) on the face of the paddle are designed to change the angle of a rebounding puck, thus allowing the goalie to more easily keep the puck away from the opposing team.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to the field of sporting equipment, specifically, hockey sticks.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Hockey is a fast moving sport, requiring players to master a number of skills, simultaneously, such as skating and stick handling. Goalies, in particular, have to master a number of skills. They have to skate, perform blocking motions with their body and legs, and use their hands and stick to catch or block the puck. Hockey is a game of speed, and the goalie is expected to keep the puck from going into the net by any means necessary. When shots are fired on net, it is extremely important for a goalie to be able to minimize the number of rebounds, and/or be able to redirect the puck to an area away from the front of the net.

When blocking the puck, most goalies would like to control the angle or direction of the rebound. Unfortunately, due to current designs, and current constructions, and the placement of the goalie stick, this is often times impossible.

A hockey goalie stick is different than other hockey sticks. The blade of the stick continues up the shaft, forming the paddle. The paddle extends between 18″ and 27″, from the surface of the ice, depending on the height and the style of play of the goalie. The goalie holds the stick with his hand on the shaft, just above the paddle. The goalie places his index, and or other fingers, in front of the paddle, with the thumb behind the paddle, and the remaining fingers wrapped around the shaft, in order to stabilize the stick.

The face of the paddle on most goalie sticks (the portion facing opposing players) is flat. This means that the angle of the rebound is dependent, mostly, on the angle of the initial shot taken. More succinctly, like light itself, the angle of reflection of a hockey puck rebounding off of the face of a goalkeeper's stick's paddle is, generally, equal to the angle of incidence. For example, taking the 0° line as perpendicular to the paddle, if a shot comes in at an angle of 10° to the right of the 0° line, it will rebound at an angle of 10° to the left of the 0° line.

The paddle, itself, can be made from wood, plastic, or composite material. The flat geometry of the paddle is a legacy of making sticks out of wood. Certain hard woods are durable, making them acceptable for use as hockey sticks. However, these hard woods are heavy, and are difficult to machine into intricate shapes. Moreover, the more facets or features a wood stick has, the more likely it is to break. As a result, the face of the paddle on a goalie stick has been flat since the early days of hockey, and it has remained flat, even as new materials have replaced hard woods. There are no equipment requirements nor widely adopted league rules which require the paddle or the face of the shaft to be flat or smooth-faced.

Clearly, with the advent of composite materials, including, but not limited to carbon fiber, Kevlar®, aramid fibers, polyethylene, polyester, and fiberglass, surface features are almost limitless. Traditional wooden sticks were milled out of hard woods. Modern composites can be formed with a number of different processes, including, but not limited to, injection molds, vacuum forms, thermo-forming, blow-molding, and gas-injection molding.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to hockey goalie sticks. The hockey goalie stick has three general regions, a blade, a paddle, and a shaft. The blade has a toe and a heel. The heel of the blade is on the end where the blade joins with the paddle. The paddle has a face and a rear. The face is the side away from the goalkeeper's body. The rear of the paddle is the side that faces the goal and the goalies body. One edge of the paddle transitions into the top-edge of the blade, and will be called the top-edge of the paddle. The other edge of the paddle transitions into the bottom-edge of the blade and will be called the bottom-edge of the paddle.

The present invention uses composite materials to construct a surface feature on the face of the paddle. The purpose of the surface feature is to change the angle of reflection of the puck, so that it no longer equals the angle of incidence of the shot, when it strikes the face of the paddle. Ideally, the surface feature should be constructed so that the goalie has the maximum amount of control, concerning over where the puck will rebound. It should also be designed so that a skilled goalkeeper, when desired, can shunt the puck to the corner of the ice rink (away from the front of the net, and the opposing players), with relative ease.

The surface feature can run the entire length of the paddle, from the blade to the shaft. The surface feature can have a cross-sectional profile of any symmetrical or asymmetrical shape which lends itself to the purpose of the surface feature, including, but not limited to, a semi-circle, half-ellipse, triangle, parabola, or hyperbola. The surface feature can have a constant cross-sectional profile over its entire length, or its cross-sectional profile can change over the length of the paddle. A changing cross-sectional profile can either change in size or change in shape. The surface feature can be more or less linear over the length of the paddle, or it can curve from the shaft to the blade. A linear paddle-surface feature can be a constant distance from the heel edge of the paddle, or it can angle either towards the toe edge or towards the heel edge. The hockey goalie stick may even include multiple surface features on the paddle, with which to deflect the puck at something other than the angle of incidence.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

There are five relevant drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of the present invention, with a full right-handed (FR) blade.

FIG. 2 is the reverse side of FIG. 1, showing the back view of a full right-handed (FR) blade.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the present invention, with a right-handed (REG) blade.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the invention, showing curvature in the blade of the stick.

FIG. 5 is a cross-section view of the paddle at the 5-5 line on FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following description represents the inventor's current preferred embodiment. The description is not meant to limit the invention, but rather to illustrate its general principles of operation and construction. Examples are illustrated with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the front view of the preferred embodiment, with a full right-handed blade. The stick is comprised of a shaft 1, a paddle 3, and a blade 8. The shaft 1 is joined to the paddle 3 at a transition point 2. The blade 8 has a toe-end 9 and a heel-end 7. The blade 8 joins with the paddle 3 near the heel end 7 of the blade 8. The same holds true of the right-handed blade 8 version in FIG. 3.

In the preferred embodiment in FIG. 1, the paddle 3 has a surface feature 6, which runs the length of the paddle 3. In FIG. 5, a cross-sectional view of the surface feature 6 can be seen. In this drawing, the surface feature 6 is semi-circular, with a near-constant cross-section. The surface feature 6 extends from the top of the paddle 3, near the transition point 2, to the bottom of the paddle, near the blade 8. The surface feature 6 runs roughly parallel to the bottom-edge 4 of the paddle 3. 

1. A goalie hockey stick, fabricated from composite material, with one or more surface features, which has a cross-section, on the paddle.
 2. The invention in 1, where one or more of the surface features' cross-sections is semi-circular.
 3. The invention in 1, where one or more of the surface features' cross-sections is semi-elliptical.
 4. The invention in 1, where one or more of the surface features' cross-sections is triangular.
 5. The invention in 1, where one or more of the surface features' cross-sections is hyperbolic or parabolic.
 6. The invention in 1, where the surface feature extends from the top of the paddle to the bottom of the paddle.
 7. The invention in 1, where the surface feature extends, only partially, from the top of the paddle to the bottom of the paddle.
 8. The invention in 1, where the surface feature(s) runs uniformly parallel to either the heel- or toe-edge of the paddle
 9. The invention in 1, where the surface feature(s) extends from near the top of the paddle to near the bottom of the paddle, angling from the toe-edge to the heel-edge.
 10. The invention in 1, where the surface feature(s) extends from near the top of the paddle to near the bottom of the paddle, angling from the heel-edge to the toe-edge.
 11. The invention in 1, where the surface feature(s) have a non-constant cross-section.
 12. The invention in 1, where the surface feature(s) curves from the heel-edge to the toe-edge or from the toe-edge to the heel-edge, as it traverses from the top of the paddle to the bottom of the paddle. 